Memories of Mali and Senegal.

Me, a goat, and the Grand Mosque in Djenné, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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ometimes opportunities come up that you just can't turn down. For the globetrotter in me, that opportunity came in the form of work assignment in IMF office in Bamako,Mali. Of course, I can't go to just Bamako so I decided to stay back for a week and travel through the country. I have to admit that I knew nothing about Mali except that Timbuktu is there. So, I started my reading and as I got to learning about the country, I decided that a visit to Mali would not be complete unless I did a trip through Dogon country. But Mali is not on the typical tourist map so finding a guide was a challenge but my persistence paid off!

Gorée Island.

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rom the Renaissance monument, we headed back towards the city to the terminal where we would catch the ferry to Gorée Island.

Views of Dakar.

Just as we were wrapping up eating, the "restaurant girl" came over to tell us that someone was waiting in the lobby for us. One last sip of coffee and we were on our way. Standing next to the reception desk was a young Senegalese man who introduced himself as *Cher-kh*....at least that's what it sounded like phonetically. Later on I found out that it is the proper pronunciation for the name "Cheikh" which is a fairly common name in this part of the word.

Good morning Dakar!

Talibah and I landed in Dakar at 5am this morning....an hour earlier than our itinerary had said we would arrive. We made it through immigration with ease and our luggage arrived in one piece. We passed through Immigration and then exited the airport following the security officer's instructions on where to find a taxi. The heat and humidity hit me immediately as I walked outside. Ugh!

....and we're off!!

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onths of planning are over and I'm minutes from leaving my office and getting into a cab headed for Dulles Airport. Destination? Dakar, Senegal!

In case you'r wondering, the photo for this posting is of the Wright Brothers plane....it's not what we'll be flying to Senegal in. No, we'll be jetting over in Business Class of a very modern airplane. Comfy :-)

The XOF and the IMF. Who knew?

The Communuate Financiere Africaine Franc, otherwise known as the CFA Franc (XOF) is the common currency of 14 African countries which are members of the Franc Zone -

Benin, Burkina, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo whose common central bank is the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO)

Talibah's coming with me!!

girlfriends having cocktails
by  siobhan gately

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y colleague, Talibah, is coming on the mission to Mali with me. Originally, we were going to be travelling separately. She was going to fly from DC to Mali via Paris and I was headed to Mali via Senegal. She's now decided to go the same route as I am so we'll be travelling together to Mali, stooping over in Senegal.  I'm so excited that she's decided to come with!!

Working out the details. A Big Checklist!

With my travel itinerary finally nailed down, I can now shift my focus to working out all the other trip details and with two back-to-back trips to plan for, there are a LOT of details! 

I really hate to be unprepared and I don't want to forget anything important so I can't live without a checklst of some sort.

This posting serves as the checklist of things I need to do for both the trip to Mali and Senegal and the one to India and Bhutan.

Mali & Senegal. Itinerary

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finally got my approval for the mission to Mali so this trip is really happening!!

I wasted no time getting my flight arrangements in order and finalizing the details of my trip through Mali after my work assignment ends.  I'm hiring a local guide for my trip through Mali. I still have to work out what exactly what I'm going to do when I'm in Dakar - so many things I want to see, so little time :-(

I'm out of visa pages?

How can it be? I got my US passport in April 2006 and today, when I went to get my visa for my upcoming trip to India and Bhutan, I was told they could not issue the visa because I'm out of visa pages in my passport.  The guy who was helping me said that I've been a very active traveller over the past four years.  That indeed I have been but I thought I had five pages left.  At least that's what it looked like but apparently, those five are reserved for the US State Department to indicate amendments (e.g., name change) to your passport. I have no amendments to make but I still need to sacrifice those five pages.  *sigh*

Pretty in pink. Lac Rose.

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lake with pink colored waters is not an unusual phenomenon. There are quite a few pink lakes located in different parts of the world. Pink lakes that are also salt lakes is als unusual; there are a few of those scattered around the globe too. The pink coloration appears to be caused by a large concentration of either cyanobacteria or salt tolerant algae.

Music to my ears.

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usic is an integral part of my daily life. There is not a day that goes by that I'm not listening to it. At a minimum, I have the radio for my hour long, each way, commute to work. My work day, for the most part, is music free but the moment I'm home, it's back on.  Even when I travel, I bring along my trusty MP3 player.

Lest we forget. Île de Gorée.

Sometimes, no matter how uncomfortable it may be, it's good to be reminded of man's inhumanity towards ourselves.  There's enough human suffering in the world - millions of people are struggling to put a roof over their heads, food on the table and clothes on their back.  Countless are dying of incurable diseases.  We don't need to add to human suffering by torturing and killing each other.

Senegal!

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f you like to travel as much as I do, one of the best things about working at the IMF is that you're surrounded by people who travel the globe as part of their job duties. One of my longtime friends, Roger, works in our African Department and he travels to Africa several times a year.  In fact, had just returned from a recent trip that had him crisscrossing the continent!